Tuesday, March 31, 2009

In all the talk about licenses these days, I don't really see anyone clamoring for a Score revival. Score cards were first introduced as a more "normal" brand from the makers of Sportflics. Anyway, I don't have a lot of Score cards that were released after 1991, and 50 cents seems about right for a jumbo pack that had an MSRP of 1.99. So I present to you, with one of the most hideous pack wrappers ever, 1996 Score - Series 2.

363 - Rafael Palmeiro Star Struck (I see what they did there... with the stars and the like.)

302 - Ivan Rodriguez (Style.)337 - Ron Gant (Gant was one of those low-budget stars, someone I always tried to sell myself on. Having four Ron Gant rookies was as good as having a Ken Griffey Jr rookie, right?)

508 - Scott Hatteberg (Hatteberg should take lessons from Pudge.)

487 - Lou Whitaker407 - Chad Ogea

511 - Marty Cordova AL Checklist (Apparently this set was numbered in League order. Whatever happened to this guy? He and Pat Listach must be laughing it up somewhere in the upper midwest.)473 - Greg Swindell389 - Steve Trachsel (If you were to do some sort of free association thing with me and said the words "bad pitcher," I'm pretty sure "Trachsel" would pop out of my mouth without much of a thought.)420 - Stan Javier456 - Pete Harnisch

1 of 20 - Frank Thomas All-Stars (This card is fairly shiny, and I kind of like the effect of the old newsprint style picture of Thomas on the right. All-Star cards came in 1 out of 4 packs according to the ugly wrapper.)480 - Gabe White479 - Brad Ausmus

4 comments:

Score '96? Now we're talking. I busted so many of these packs when I was young. The ugly wrapper, the "rookies" whose true rookie cards were in early-'90s traded sets, and the Star Struck cards! By God the Star Struck cards! What an incredible set. I met Ron Gant twice in person [Padres and Phillies] -- he's a good man.

Marty Cordova juiced up alongside Jay Gibbons before he faded from view.

I used to call him Meaty Cordova, on account of all of the inexplicable beef dangling from his arms and bulging from his neck. This card is excellent evidence of my theory, given his skinny waistedness in '96.